"Comments from China's Anti-Cult Exhibition"

("Peoples Daily," July 27, 2001)

An anti-cult exhibition at the Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution in Beijing has attracted more than 200,000 visitors during the past 10 days who left enough comments to fill 40 thick notebooks.
The following are some remarks made in response to "Against Cults and For Civilization":
"I'm indignant at the way Falun Gong has poisoned juveniles," wrote a viewer named Liu Lijuan.
"I really appreciate the efforts of the exhibitor, who took over five months to prepare the exhibition. The show really created an ideological battlement safeguarded by Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought and Deng Xiaoping Theory to fight against cults and superstition," wrote Kong Zhaoxu, a retired employee of the All-China Agricultural Museum.
"Falun Gong is not only the enemy of the Chinese people, but also a common enemy of those who love world peace and respect knowledge and science. It deserves vigilance and lashes from all righteous people," wrote visitor Qiao Chunhong.
"I suggest the cultural circle should base a movie or TV show on some of the disclosure of the cult's tricks to better educate the public." -- Visitor Bai Yujie.
"A very convincing and effective anti-cult show." -- Han Juyin from Chongqing.
"Great show, necessary and timely." -- Zhang Xiaodan from Harbin.
"It would be better to tour the exhibition around the country so that Chinese people will no longer be fooled by cults. Let western anti-China supporters see what a cult they have been backing up." -- Visitor Wang Meichang from Xi'an Foreign Language Institute.
"The battle against Falun Gong is a serious political war, a long-term and complicated war." -- Visitor Liu Xingde.
"I will bring the materials back home to enrich the contents of the anti-cult bulletin on our campus." -- Visitor Zhu Xiaoping from the No. 5 Middle School in Xiangfan, Hubei Province.
One Falun Gong practitioner wrote: "I will break away from the Falun Gong cult and start a new life. Please convey my respect to all people involved in helping Falun Gong practitioners get rid of the cult."

"Falun Gong supporter confronts Jiang in Malta"

(Reuters, July 27, 2001)

VALLETTA - A supporter of the banned Chinese religious movement Falun Gong managed to confront Chinese President Jiang Zemin shortly before he left Malta on Wednesday.
A Chinese-American woman, identified as Wang Wenwi walked right up to Jiang and asked him about the suppression of Falun Gong followers in China before she was whisked away.
The Chinese leader asked her to be allowed back and answered her in an agitated voice and with much gesticulation. It was not clear exactly what he had said.
Malta was Jiang's last stop on a five-nation tour that also took him to Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus.
In Malta, he had talks with Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami and opposition leader Alfred Sant and signed a cultural cooperation agreement.
On Wednesday, he toured the Mediterranean island's ancient walled city of Mdina, taking the opportunity to play some notes on an 18th-century organ at Mdina Cathedral Museum.

"Hong Kong keeps open mind on Falun Gong"

by John Gittings ("The Guardian," July 24, 2001)

The view out of a Hong Kong apartment window reveals a typical sight: a flight of steps and one of those mini-recreation areas that alleviate the pressures of overcrowding. And found within it, a motionless figure in the typical meditative pose of a supporter of the Falun Gong. A few passersby on the steps pause for a curious look and then carry on. No plain-clothes police rush up and beat the practitioner or drag him off to a police van. This is Hong Kong, not Beijing, after all.
On Friday last week, the second anniversary of the mainland ban on the Falun Gong as an "evil cult", some 160 followers gathered outside the office of Hong Kong's chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa, to mark the occasion. They were left alone, too.
It was a similar demonstration, though on a much larger scale, in Beijing in 1999, outside the office of China's chief executive, President Jiang Zemin, that led to the original ban. Mr Jiang was both incensed by the group's audacity and alarmed by the extensive organisation that the protest revealed.
Beijing (perhaps one should simply say Mr Jiang) continues to be obsessed by the alleged threat posed by the Falun Gong, although it has never convincingly explained what it is that threat represents.
To mark the anniversary of the ban (though without actually mentioning the date) the Chinese press published a lurid tale of a body flung into a river by supporters of the "evil cult". It was the corpse of a practitioner who had allegedly refused to be treated for her illness, believing she would be saved by the teachings of the Master, Li Hongzhi (now in self-imposed exile in the US).
Meanwhile, the Falun Gong publicity network abroad - and in Hong Kong - published more accusations against the Chinese police of deliberately torturing and raping female practitioners in custody.
For the Falun Gong to survive so visibly in Hong Kong is an encouraging sign that, in spite of numerous difficulties, the territory still preserves a good measure of the autonomy guaranteed to it.
Falun Gong spokesman Kan Hung-cheung claimed last week that numbers of the local branch have risen to about 500. Mr Tung has previously caused concern by labelling the sect - in Beijing's language - as "no doubt an evil cult" and vowing to step up surveillance.
The Hong Kong Journalists' Association warned that a dangerous precedent would be set if the government took action against the group because it was the target of a mainland political campaign. Yet for the moment it seems that Mr Tung and his senior colleagues are performing the sort of balancing act to which provincial administrations on the mainland also resort when they want to keep the central government happy.
The trick is to mouth the right phrases, of which senior cadres in Beijing will take approving note, but to avoid taking definitive action (in this case, by resorting to a ban).
The Hong Kong administration is also well aware that a ban would attract immense negative publicity abroad. As the New York Times correspondent argued in reporting the July 23 demonstration, the price of a ban would be "worldwide opprobrium, and ruination for Hong Kong's reputation as an attractive place to do business".
Last week saw another move by Mr Tung's government to avoid such opprobrium, when the secretary of security, Regina Ip, announced that it would not ask Beijing to reverse (technically to "re-interpret") an important decision in Hong Kong's own court of final appeal (CFA).
The decision allows all Chinese children who are born in Hong Kong, even though their parents are only visiting there, the "right of abode" and applies to about 2,200 children.
Last year, after the CFA had ruled in favour of a vastly larger number of children (those born on the mainland to a parent who has the right of abode in Hong Kong), the court was forced to a humiliating climbdown after the relevant provision of the basic law was "re-interpreted" in Beijing.
It was easier for Ms Ip to adopt a hands-off attitude this time. Not only are the numbers involved much smaller, but the CFA decided another appeal in this area (regarding the right of abode of children adopted from the mainland) in the government's favour.
A statement from Beijing - which Ms Ip said she would "study carefully" suggests the matter is still not closed. A spokesman for the standing committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), which delivered last year's "re-interpretation", said it was "deeply concerned" by the CFA's decision on visitors' births.
As Hong Kong politician Margaret Ng commented: ". . . people will wonder if this [the NPC statement] is a prelude to something more serious."
The question of Hong Kong's autonomy also came up recently in the controversy over a new bill to define the circumstances under which elections for a new chief executive can be held. Clumsy handling of the wording by the government raised suspicions, still not entirely allayed after the bill had been amended, that it might allow Beijing legal room to revoke the chief executive's appointment.
At least Mr Tung and his colleagues appear more aware now that they must tread carefully. Whether they continue to do so will depend not only on their own resolve but on Beijing's restraint.

"Falun Gong Member Said to Burn Self"

(Associated Press, July 24, 2001)

BEIJING (AP) - A 19-year-old follower of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement set himself on fire on a city square in southern China and died the next day, state media reported.
Luo Guili died of severe burns on July 2 in Nanning, the capital of southern China's Guangxi region, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Monday. It didn't report why authorities waited three weeks to announce his death.
China says at least four Falun Gong practitioners have killed themselves by self-immolation since the government outlawed the group two years ago. It says others have killed themselves by hanging themselves.
Falun Gong representatives question the government's claims, saying the group's teachings forbid suicide.
Xinhua said Luo started practicing Falun Gong in 1996 as a student at Guangxi's Light Industry School.
After meditating for a while on the square in Nanning on July 1, Luo pulled two plastic bottles of alcohol from a bag, doused himself and ignited it before guards and police could stop him, Xinhua said.
Falun Gong attracted millions of followers in the 1990s with a blend of slow-motion exercises and ideas drawn from Buddhism, Taoism and the group's exiled leader, Li Hongzhi.
Thousands of followers are in jails and labor camps and tens of thousands have been arrested and pressured to renounce the group in the government crackdown. Falun Gong says many followers have been tortured and that 250 have been killed.
The government banned Falun Gong as a threat to Communist Party rule and Chinese society.
On Monday, Chinese President Jiang Zemin arrived in Malta, where several Falun Gong members unfurled a banner near a war memorial he was visiting that said: ``Stop killing Falun Gong practitioners in China.''

"Chinese President arrives in Malta amid protests"

(Reuters, July 23, 2001)

VALLETTA - Chinese President Jiang Zemin arrived in Malta on Monday for a three day visit, sparking protests from members of the banned Chinese religious movement Falun Gong against China's human rights record.
Six members of the movement had to be removed by police from Malta's war memorial just outside the capital shortly before Jiang arrived, amid tight security, to lay a wreath on the site.
The protesters wore t-shirts and displayed a banner decrying China's non-observance of human rights.
A small Maltese political grouping, Alternattiva Demokratika, also said it would hold a candlelight vigil outside the Chinese embassy in St Julian's, four miles north of Valletta on Monday night, to protest over China's human rights record.
The president's visit is the last leg of a five nation tour which has already taken him to Russia, Belarus, Moldovia and Ukraine.
Jiang was due to meet Maltese President Guido de Marco in Valletta later on Monday. De Marco visited China earlier this month.
He will also attend an official dinner hosted by Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami.
This is the second visit by a Chinese President to Malta, Li Xiannian having visited in November 1984.
Malta was the first Western European country to recognise China in 1971 and China subsequently assisted successive Maltese governments in port development and other infrastructural projects.

"Quietly, Hong Kong Takes the Heat Off Falun Gong"

by Mark Landler ("New York Times," July 23, 2001)

Two years ago Sunday, the Chinese government outlawed Falun Gong, saying that the spiritual movement posed a dire threat to social stability. While Beijing has hounded the sect with escalating fury - imprisoning and allegedly torturing scores of its adherents - Hong Kong has quietly backed off its campaign.
For months, top officials here tried to match the vitriol of their mainland bosses toward Falun Gong. Hong Kong's Beijing-appointed chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa, condemned it, calling it an evil cult, while the security chief, Regina Ip, likened its members to spears pointed at the Chinese government. But after dropping hints that it might follow China in banning Falun Gong, the former British colony now says that it has no plans to pass a law against the sect.
The protected status of Falun Gong in Hong Kong says a great deal about the limits of Beijing's power in this capitalist outpost. Four years after it reverted to Chinese sovereignty, Hong Kong has become a noticeably more Chinese city, in look, feel and especially in governance. Under Mr. Tung, a paternalistic former shipping tycoon, decisions are made within a small circle of trusted aides, most of whom were chosen for their fealty to China as well as to their boss.
But after 155 years under Britain, Hong Kong retains a few vestiges of its colonial past that have proved hard for China to break. Chief among them is the rule of law as interpreted by courts based on British common law principles - a condition for China's takeover of the city. So far, that has put Falun Gong in Hong Kong beyond the reach of either China's leaders or Hong Kong officials, who compete with each other to do Beijing's bidding.
As if to underscore the difference between Hong Kong and China, about 160 Falun Gong members gathered outside Mr. Tung's office Friday to mark the anniversary of the crackdown. Sitting in the lotus position, with their eyes closed and hands raised in prayer, the group aroused little notice - let alone anger or alarm - from the police, or office workers who strolled past.
If China's leaders had their way, such protests would be as unthinkable here in Hong Kong as they are in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.
Beijing's loyalists in Hong Kong certainly tried to bring in a ban on Falun Gong.
"Hong Kong was desperate to ban them, they were hunting for ways to do it," said Michael DeGolyer, the director of the Hong Kong Transition Project, which studies public attitudes before and since the 1997 handover. "It is just extremely complex to do, given the legal system."
If the Chinese government ordered Hong Kong to outlaw Falun Gong, it would shatter "one country, two systems," the formula under which Britain returned Hong Kong to China with a guarantee that Beijing would protect its laws and liberties for 50 years. The price would be worldwide opprobrium, and ruination for Hong Kong's reputation as an attractive place to do business.
Recognizing this, China's leaders have kept their hands off. Instead, they have relied on Mr. Tung and his deputies to do the job, and those officials searched hard for a pretext to outlaw Falun Gong. First, they considered revoking its license on the grounds that it was a threat to public safety. That collapsed in the face of Falun Gong's manifest harmlessness in Hong Kong.
The sect has barely 500 members, in Hong Kong, mostly middle-aged. At dawn, they gather in parks to practice their meditation and breathing exercises. They also protest against China's president and Mr. Tung. But the most damning charge the government can drum up is that they hand out pamphlets too aggressively.
Next, Hong Kong considered passing an anti-cult law, as France recently did. But the government concluded that the tactic was untested in Europe, and might not pass muster in the territory's British-style courts. So Hong Kong has reverted to placing Falun Gong under close scrutiny, hoping that the pressure will keep its members from destructive behavior.
"If you worship the sun, the moon, or the stars, it is your business," said the security chief, Mrs. Ip. "But if you want your followers to worship it by taking poisonous drinks, or practicing polygamy, or encouraging young girls to go into prostitution, then the authorities need to be concerned."
Critics of the government said that Falun Gong avoided persecution this time only because foreign countries, including the United States, warned that banning the sect would damage Hong Kong's reputation. But by branding it an evil cult, they say, Hong Kong is trying to suppress it by other means.
Mrs. Ip makes no apologies for the harsh words. "If you follow the ancient tradition of Chinese rulers, we have a duty to educate, to set standards, even to prescribe morals," she said. "Tung, and myself in my humble way, were trying to follow that tradition."
So the tug-of-war between Confucius and common law in Hong Kong continues, and Falun Gong probably should not rest easy.

"After Olympic win, China takes new aim at Falun Gong"

by Jonathan Ansfield (Reuters, July 23, 2001)

BEIJING - The tour starts with blown-up photos of charred bodies, bludgeoned faces and illegal rituals.
It ends with emotional footage of women "saved" at government re-education camps, tables demonstrating the need to take medicine and optical illusions meant to illustrate the difference between science and superstition.
For thousands in Beijing, the vast new exhibit marking the two-year anniversary of China's crackdown on the Falun Gong spiritual group was a way of sobering up after the revelry of landing the 2008 Olympics.
The timing, though coincidental, highlighted the widening gulf between a government eager to ensure social stability for the Games and overseas human rights groups keen to show China's preparations for it will do more harm than good.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, combines meditation and exercise with Buddhist and Taoist teachings. It was banned in China on July 22, 1999, accused of being an evil cult trying to topple the communist government.
By Wednesday July 18, more than 25,000 people had visited the exhibit, titled "Fight Cults, Uphold Civilisation" and co-sponsored by six different government offices.
Li Wei, head curator of the exhibition, says its purpose is to use visual imagery and "the facts" to educate people about the movement.
"Particularly after the Olympic success, China's social environment needs to be improved," Li told Reuters.
"These cults affect our stable social development, as well as people's basic human rights."
Falun Gong supporters overseas lashed back at similar comments made by Chinese Vice Premier Li Lanqing -- China's chief Olympic ambassador -- as he visited the exhibit on July 17.
The official Xinhua news agency quoted him as equating China's winning the right to host the Olympics with "international recognition of our country's social stability," and urged further efforts to expose Falun Gong to "guarantee lasting security."
"China uses Olympic win to justify human rights atrocities," the Falun Dafa Information Center retorted.
China holds Falun Gong responsible for the deaths of 1,660 people by suicide, refusal of medical treatment and, in a few cases, domestic violence.
Falun Gong denies endorsing violence of any kind, including suicide, and says more than 200 adherents have died in police custody since the ban.
EVOLVING PROPAGANDA
Illegally circulated floppy disks and texts dramatising what the government calls its "struggle" with Falun Gong alerted visitors at the exhibit to the group's resilience.
Despite neighbourhood sweeps, "labour through education" camps and stern legal measures, the organisation "has not ceased to be active," says Li.
In March, Chinese lawmakers made it a top priority to end Falun Gong's activities this year.
One Western diplomat said government propaganda was "evolving" towards that end and played down any immediate links between the Olympics and China's human rights record.
He said the propaganda campaign had been much more effective since the self-immolations of five purported Falun Gong members in Tianamen Square in January. Two of the five people who lit their petrol-soaked clothes died.
China identified the victims as Falun Gong believers directed to burn themselves by group leaders, a charge the group denies.
The Beijing Daily said on Friday five Falun Gong followers had been put on trial for their alleged roles in the suicide attempt.
"It's only since the immolations that there has been a popular consensus," the diplomat said, noting recent propaganda had consisted largely of human interest stories and accounts of so-called "rehabilitation" efforts.
"They have struck a very emotional chord," he said.
The People's Daily, the Communist Party newspaper, condemned Falun Gong on Friday as "inhumane" and told a story of adherents sticking the body of a fellow believer in a sewer to hide the evidence after she had refused medicine.
The intensifying attack on Falun Gong's "human rights" violations takes China's arguments to their logical extreme -- one sign the leadership is getting anxious to move on.
"Many in China's leadership realise they have to address the underlying problems," said the diplomat, referring to popular dissatisfaction with welfare, living standards, and official corruption which some believe gave rise to Falun Gong.
HITLER
The high-traffic exhibit was supposed to be open to the general public, but the free entrance tickets have been reserved almost exclusively for approved tour groups.
"It's partially for the protection of visitors from... Falun Gong's violent tendencies," says Li.
Officers at a security checkpoint confiscated visitors' water bottles, an eerie reminder of the self-immolations, in which the purported Falun Gong members concealed bottles filled with petrol in their coats.
One cartoon lampooning Falun Gong founder Li Hongzhi is dotted with swastikas, a plain attempt to liken him to Hitler.
Another part of the exhibit sharpens the government's classification of Falun Gong as part of worldwide trend, with morbid images of mass suicides and violence linked with "evil cults" overseas.
"In the U.S. they also have these groups," says a man surnamed Jin, 72, who catches every inch of the displays with his video camera. "Countries all over the world are working to oppose them."
Few seem bothered by the gore. "This is education," says a woman surnamed Bai, 45. "If you don't show people, they will never know."
"We haven't even displayed the worst of it," adds Li, the curator.
He says the dark, gruesome photoboards have been deliberately offset by lit-up images showing the smiling masses who took part in activities to oppose the spiritual group.
"We made that area brighter, to lighten the mood."

"`Sect members' go on trial over fire deaths"

by Pamela Pun ("Hong Kong iMail," July 23, 2001)

Five alleged members of the Falun Gong have appeared on trial in a Beijing court for their suspected roles in organising an attempted mass suicide on Tiananmen Square earlier this year, according to court staff and official media yesterday.
The trial started on Thursday morning, one day before the second anniversary of the central government's crackdown on the sect.
``The court started the trial yesterday. No hearing is arranged today. It is not known when the trial will end,'' a staff member of Beijing Municipal Number One Intermediate People's Court told the Hong Kong iMail yesterday.
The staff member refused to say who was allowed to attend the case although an official report claimed the trial was ``open''.
Liu Yunfang, Wang Jindong, Liu Xiuqin and Liu Baorong were charged with ``using an evil cult organisation to make people die'', Beijing Daily said yesterday.
``Xue Hongjun was charged for using an evil cult to sabotage the implementation of the law,'' said the paper which is run by the Communist Party's municipal committee.
Seven members of the outlawed sect - six women and one man - attempted to set themselves on fire on Tiananmen Square on January 23, the eve of the last Lunar New Year.
Liu Chunling, 36, died at the scene. Her daughter Liu Siying, 12, died in hospital one month later.
Falun Gong spokespersons in the United States and Hong Kong have repeatedly denied that the seven were members of the sect, saying suicide is against the principle teachings of the organisation.
But the mainland government said the incident proved `the evil nature of Falun Gong and sounded an alarm to those obsessed with the cult', which it likened to Japan's Aum Shinri Kyo cult.
State media and anti-Falun Gong exhibitions showed pictures of people in flames in Tiananmen Square and close-ups of the burned victims in their hospital beds.
Founded in 1992 by Li Hongzhi, ex-soldier-turned-Qigong master, the sect once claimed it had 100 million followers on the mainland.
The central government outlawed the sect on July 20, 1999, three months after some 10,000 practitioners besieged the leadership compound of Zhongnanhai.
Over the past two years, the authorities have launched an intensified crackdown as well as propaganda campaign against the sect, although these moves appear to have failed.

"Falun Gong Manages Skimpy Rally; Is Sect Fading?"

by Craig S. Smith ("The New York Times", July 22, 2001)

BEIJING - A handful of members of the spiritual movement Falun Gong marked the second anniversary of China's ban on the group by trying to protest in Tiananmen Square.
The police quickly subdued all of the protesters, including one woman who sat briefly in a meditating pose and two women who briefly unfurled a yellow banner before being hauled into one of the white police vans that are now stationed around the clock on the square.
But the absence of larger numbers of protesters on such an important anniversary for Falun Gong's struggle in China suggests that the government's campaign to eradicate the movement is making progress. For the first six months after the start of the crackdown, protests on the square were a daily occurrence and concentrated protests marked many of the dates considered important by the group.
Since the beginning of the year, though, the government has stopped releasing the protesters it picks up on the square, steering them instead into detention until they recant their beliefs or are transferred to labor camps. More than 6,000 followers have been picked up so far this year, according to He Zuoxiu, a physicist and outspoken critic of the group. The strategy has taken the most active members out of circulation.
Nonetheless, the government concedes that the Falun Gong movement is likely to persist and has not relaxed its intense propaganda campaign against the spiritual discipline, founded by a former government clerk who now lives in the United States.
The government's latest effort is an anticult exhibition at Beijing's national military museum. Falun Gong takes center stage among presentations about such groups as David Koresh's Branch Davidians, Jim Jones's People's Temple and Shoko Asahara's Aum Shinrikyo, which was responsible for a nerve gas attack in Tokyo's subway in 1995.
The exhibition features graphic photographs of people the government says killed themselves or others after becoming disoriented by Falun Gong's teachings. Its presentation of Falun Gong focuses on the U.F.O.'s and aliens incorporated in the discipline's belief system and on the Falun, or Dharma Wheel, that followers believe the movement's founder, Li Hongzhi, installs in their abdomens.
State news media today showed pictures of a group of more than 100 former Falun Gong followers visiting the exhibition on Saturday and praising the government for saving them.
Only groups are admitted to the exhibition, an apparent security measure to prevent individual Falun Gong followers from entering the museum and staging a protest there.
On Friday, five Falun Gong followers were put on trial for their suspected role in a group suicide attempt in which five followers set themselves on fire on Tiananmen Square in January. Two people died in the episode.
Falun Gong followers in the United States have denied that the five people who set themselves on fire were members of the movement, although many followers in China believe otherwise. Mr. Li, the founder, has remained silent on the suicides.

"Hong Kong Bows to Beijing. Except When It Doesn't"

by Mark Landler (AP) ("New York Times," July 22, 2001)

HONG KONG - Two years ago today, the Chinese government outlawed Falun Gong, saying the spiritual movement posed a dire threat to social stability. While Beijing has hounded the sect with escalating fury - imprisoning and allegedly torturing scores of its adherents - Hong Kong has quietly backed off its campaign.
For months, top officials here tried to match the vitriol of their mainland bosses toward Falun Gong. Hong Kong's Beijing- appointed chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa, condemned it as an "evil cult," while the security chief, Regina Ip, likened its members to "spears" pointed at the Chinese government.
But after dropping hints that it might follow China in banning Falun Gong, this former British colony now says it has no plans to pass a law against the sect.
The protected status of Falun Gong in Hong Kong says a great deal about the limits of Beijing's power in this capitalist outpost. Four years after it reverted to Chinese sovereignty, Hong Kong has become a noticeably more Chinese city, in look, feel and especially in governance. Under Mr. Tung, a paternalistic former shipping tycoon, decisions are made within a small circle of trusted aides - most of whom were chosen for their fealty to China as well as to their boss.
But after 155 years under Britain, Hong Kong retains a few vestiges of its colonial past that have proven hard for China to break. Chief among them is the rule of law as interpreted by courts based on British common law principles - a condition for China's takeover of the city. So far, that has put Falun Gong in Hong Kong beyond the reach of either China's leaders or Hong Kong officials, who compete with each other to do Beijing's bidding.
As if to underscore the difference between Hong Kong and China, about 160 Falun Gong members gathered outside Mr. Tung's office on Friday to mark the anniversary of the crackdown. Sitting in the lotus position, with their eyes closed and hands raised in prayer, the crowd aroused little notice - let alone anger or alarm - from the police, or office workers who strolled past.
If China's leaders had their way, such protests would be as unthinkable here as in Tiananmen Square. And Beijing's loyalists here certainly tried to make that happen.
"Hong Kong was desperate to ban them, they were hunting for ways to do it," said Michael DeGolyer, the director of the Hong Kong Transition Project, which studies public attitudes before and since the 1997 handover. "It is just extremely complex to do, given the legal system."
Of course, the Chinese government could order Hong Kong to outlaw Falun Gong, just as it could launch a military assault on Taiwan. But that would shatter "one country, two systems," the formula under which Britain returned Hong Kong to China with a guarantee that Beijing would protect its laws and liberties for 50 years. The price would be worldwide opprobrium, and ruination for Hong Kong's reputation as an attractive place to do business.
Recognizing this, China's leaders have kept their hands off. Instead, they have relied on Mr. Tung and his deputies to do the job, and those officials did search far and wide for a pretext to outlaw Falun Gong. First, they considered revoking its license on the grounds that it was a threat to public safety. That collapsed in the face of Falun Gong's manifest harmlessness here.
In Hong Kong, the sect has barely 500 members, most middle-aged. At dawn, they gather in parks to practice their meditation and breathing exercises.
They also protest against China's president, Jiang Zemin, as well as Mr.
Tung. But the most damning charge the government can drum up is that they hand out pamphlets too aggressively.
NEXT, Hong Kong considered passing an anti-cult law, as France recently did.
But the government concluded that the tactic was untested in Europe, and might not pass muster in the British-style courts here. So Hong Kong has reverted to placing Falun Gong under close scrutiny, in the hope that the pressure will keep its members from destructive behavior.
"If you worship the sun, the moon, or the stars, it is your business," said the security chief, Mrs. Ip. "But if you want your followers to worship it by taking poisonous drinks, or practicing polygamy, or encouraging young girls to go into prostitution, then the authorities need to be concerned."
Critics of the government said Falun Gong avoided persecution this time only because foreign countries, including the United States, warned that banning the sect would soil Hong Kong's reputation. But by branding it an evil cult, they say, Hong Kong is trying to suppress it by other means.
Mrs. Ip makes no apologies for the harsh words. "If you follow the ancient tradition of Chinese rulers, we have a duty to educate, to set standards, even to prescribe morals," she said. "Mr. Tung, and myself in my humble way, were trying to follow that tradition."
So the tug-of-war between Confucius and common law here continues, and Falun Gong probably should not rest easy.

"Falun Gong protest quashed"

(BBC News, July 22, 2001)

Chinese police have prevented followers of the outlawed Falun Gong spiritual movement staging protests in Beijing.
The protests were staged in Tiananmen square on the second anniversary of the ban imposed by the Chinese authorities.
Eyewitnesses reported seeing police arrest up to eight people in the square as they unfurled protest banners.
They were bundled into police vans and taken away from the square.
Hong Kong
Another group of about 140 Falun Gong supporters is reported to have demonstrated outside Chinese Government offices in Hong Kong.
Earlier in the week, police set up roadblocks on roads into Beijing to deter Falun Gong supporters from congregating in the capital.
'Evil cult'
The Chinese authorities banned the group two years ago, dismissing it as an "evil cult".
They say it has caused some 1,600 deaths because its followers do not use medicine.
Falun Gong supporters protest in Taipei
Last week, five Falun Gong members were put on trial for their alleged part in a mass suicide attempt in Tiananmen Square in January.
Since the ban, tens of thousands of supporters have been detained for continued protests.
International human rights groups says thousands of Falun Gong members are in forced labour camps, and at least 200 have died in police custody.

"Falun Gong members defy China on ban anniversary"

by Jonah Greenberg (Reuters, July 22, 2001)

BEIJING - Chinese police on Sunday dragged at least five followers of the Falun Gong spiritual movement off Tiananmen Square, squashing sporadic protests on the second anniversary of China's crackdown on the group.
One woman was posing in a meditating position when a plainclothes officer slapped her and threw her into one of several vans that weaved through crowds of camera-toting tourists who filled the square, a witness said.
Earlier, police arrested two women after they unfurled a yellow banner protesting against China's treatment of Falun Gong.
Police grabbed the women by their hair and threw them into a van that sped away from the vast square as 30-foot (9-metre) high speakers blared patriotic songs, a witness said.
Officers also arrested a man and a woman protesting nearby.
The protests demonstrated the stubborn resistance of the Falun Gong in the face of a massive government propaganda campaign and the biggest security operation since the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre of pro-democracy protests.
FORMER FOLLOWERS RECANT
Two years after banning the group as an "evil cult," Beijing's propaganda effort in recent days has focused on a new museum exhibition in Beijing that sets out to discredit Falun Gong, which is based loosely on Taoism, Buddhism and traditional Chinese exercises.
State-owned newspapers on Sunday showed pictures of a group of more than 100 former Falun Gong followers who visited the exhibit on Saturday and praised the government for "saving" them.
"Li Hongzhi is too evil," one was quoted as saying in the Beijing Daily, referring to the group's U.S.-based founder. "The idea that the so-called Falun Gong can cure illness is a psychological trick," he said.
The exhibit shows blown-up photos of charred bodies, bludgeoned faces and illegal rituals, and emotional footage of women "saved" at government re-education camps.
HUMAN RIGHTS CONCERNS
Chinese authorities say Falun Gong is responsible for the deaths of 1,800 people by suicide or refusing medical treatment.
In the run-up to Sunday's anniversary, police set up roadblocks on roads leading to Beijing to try to catch Falun Gong adherents sneaking into the capital to demonstrate on Tiananmen.
Trucks were searched and drivers questioned as part of the nationwide security operation that has bred public resentment and anger because it has distracted police from fighting crime.
China last week put on trial five Falun Gong followers for their alleged role in a fiery group suicide attempt at Tiananmen Square in January, state media reported.
Those who went on trial for "using an evil cult to organise a homicide" included a survivor of the Chinese New Year's Eve self-immolations that resulted in two deaths.
One woman died shortly after the self-immolations and her 12-year-old daughter died seven weeks later.
Falun Gong has denied that the five self-immolators belonged to the movement.
China's battle with the spiritual group has sparked international concern about abuse of religious freedom and civil liberties.
Since 1999, tens of thousands of Falun Gong followers have been detained for protesting on Tiananmen Square.
Human rights groups say thousands of members are in labour camps and at least 200 have died of abuse in police custody.

"China Uses Photos to Sully Falun Gong"

by William Foreman (Associated Press, July 21, 2001)

BEIJING - China is marking Sunday's anniversary of the banning of Falun Gong with an exhibit of graphic photos that it says show members of the meditation group who committed suicide, mutilated themselves or attacked others.
During the past week, groups of students, soldiers and office workers have filed past the sleek displays of pictures, video footage, text and cartoons with a simple message: Healthy, intelligent people who begin practicing Falun Gong go crazy and hurt themselves and their families.
A New York-based Falun Gong spokeswoman, Gail Rachlin, dismissed the exhibit at Beijing's Military History Museum as a crude smear campaign.
``It's all lies. It's all propaganda,'' Rachlin said. ``The reality is that this (Chinese government) is a totalitarian regime relentlessly persecuting millions of its own people.''
Two years ago on July 22, China labeled Falun Gong an ``evil cult'' and banned the group, which advocates its own form of meditation and light exercise. The Communist Party apparently saw the group's organization and growing ranks - which included several party members - as a threat to its monopoly on power.
Many of the group's leaders have been arrested, but its founder, Li Hongzhi, lives in exile in the United States.
Since the ban, China's police and state-run media have launched a fierce campaign to crush Falun Gong, and it appears to have been successful in driving the group deep underground. Protests are fewer and Falun Gong followers appear more desperate.
``We're close to completely wiping out Falun Gong. There are just a few hardcore members left,'' said Zhao Chongxing, an official in the news office of the State Council, China's Cabinet.
It is almost impossible to know how many Falun Gong followers are left because they risk arrest by acknowledging their activities or by speaking to reporters.
Police detained at least six protesters Friday in Beijing, and more demonstrations were expected Sunday. The group often protests during holidays and the crackdown anniversary.
At the new exhibit, called ``Oppose Evil Cults, Uphold Culture,'' visitors must first pass through metal detectors and their bags are thoroughly searched. Police confiscated a bottle of mineral water from a reporter's bag, apparently fearing it might contain flammable liquid used in the past by Falun Gong protesters who set themselves on fire.
One gory series of photos shows Tan Yihui, a 26-year-old shoe shiner from southern Hunan province who torched himself last February in Beijing. Tan's blackened, contorted body is on its back. His stiff arms look as if they are hugging something. The skin over his thighs is ripped apart, showing yellowish flesh.
A group of junior high students stopped and stared at the pictures, and said, ``How terrifying!'' But an office worker in a neat lavender dress suit quickly avoided it. ``My gosh! I don't dare look at this,'' she said.
Gruesome pictures of five purported Falun Gong followers who torched themselves last January in Beijing's Tiananmen Square were also prominently displayed.
Another picture showed a photo of a farmer in the southern province of Hainan who was allegedly attacked by purported Falun Gong follower, Du Zhuanli. The photo shows a hoe-like farm tool deeply implanted in the head of Du's alleged victim, who suffered severe injuries.
Rachlin, the Falun Gong spokeswoman, said the group could not say if the people featured in the exhibit were true practitioners of the meditation exercises. She said China has blocked the group from investigating.